PERUVIAN REGIONS. 



207 



The vegetable growth is never exposed to severe cold, nor, as in the 

 North, favored with a summer of continuous warmth ; but through- 

 out the year, endures oft-repeated almost nightly frosts. That the 

 alpine phase in vegetable growth may exist without " constant humi- 

 dity," became evident on the Chilian Ancles ; that it may also exist 

 without the "pressure of accumulated snow," was now manifest. 



Character and composition of the vegetable growth. The alpine 

 region, or the portion of the Andes above the elevation of fourteen 

 thousand feet, proved where visited by ourselves more than ten geo- 

 graphical miles wide. 



The alpine ground did not appear to be distinguished from the Para- 

 mera by the people of the country, as it continues to afford pasturage 

 over the greater part of its area. There is indeed difficulty in draw- 

 ing a line of demarcation : the alpine habit of growth being assimilated 

 in the Paramera by depressed species of Baccharis, and certain other 

 plants ; the same genera continuing throughout ; and many Paramera 

 species occurring in sheltered situations in the alpine region, as Ferns 

 and a R'lbes in clefts of rocks at Casa-Cancha and Alpamarca. On 

 the other hand, a large proportion of the species, and the genuine 

 alpine phase in growth, appeared to be limited to the uppermost dis- 

 trict ; where some change in character was also manifest ; Leguminosce 

 being comparatively rare, Saxifragece making their first appearance, 

 Geutianacece becoming one of the prevailing Tribes, and Malvaceoi most 

 unexpectedly abounding. 



There were three principal variations in the aspect and local dis- 

 tribution of the vegetable growth : — 1. On the Western slope, where 

 we first entered the alpine region, the soil from the steepness being less 

 retentive of moisture, was left partly bare; the scanty vegetable growth 

 occurring principally in detached tufts. There was here very little 

 variety in the genera and species; and the tufts of grasses were some- 

 times a foot high, with their leaves all radical and upright. The same 

 state of things was more or less observable on other steep acclivi- 

 ties. — 2. Eastward of the crest, the climate was already sensibly more 

 moist ; and the country gently-undulating, was completely covered 

 with a dense sward of short grasses, only an inch high, and often 

 throughout extensive areas uniformly less ; the species being mostly 

 distinct from the tufted ones above-mentioned. In certain tracts, 

 were large white bundles of a woolly Cactus, that, in the distance, 

 might be mistaken for flocks of sheep reposing. In some slight shal- 



